Adolf Hitler was the Führer und Reichskanzler of Nazi Germany, the Third Reich, before and during World War II. He started the war with the intention to create the German Empire that would dominate Europe. He was responsible for a genocide in which about six million European Jews and other people were murdered. His reign of terror also gave rise to another great war criminal, Johann Schmidt, the infamous Red Skull.

In the chaotic situation after German defeat in World War I, Hitler formed the Nazi Party and began his slow rise to power, during which he was assisted by his storm troopers, the Sturmabteilung. He gained popular support by promoting Pan-Germanism, antisemitism, and anticommunism. After his appointment as chancellor in 1933, he transformed Germany into a single-party state based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of Nazism.[3]

Meeting Schmidt

Adolf Hitler at the Deutsches Opernhaus

"What if the old Norse tales Wagner adopts into his operas are more history that myth, mein Führer? And what the superstitous masses refer to as "magic" is simply the oldest science ever known. With further funding, I hope to confirm my theories.""Intriguing. Kaufman, arrange a lunch between myself and the professor where there's an opening in my schedule.""Ja, mein Führer!"

In February 1934 Hitler was at the Deutsches Opernhaus in Berlin. With him was Ernst Kaufmann, head of the Sturmabteilung's (SA) Special Weapons Division. There, he met Johann Schmidt, the German physicist who revealed them his theory that Norse gods and their magic could be more than myth. Hitler was intrigued by Schmidt's ideas, but Kaufmann was less impressed. Though Hitler ordered Kaufman to arrange a meeting between him and Schmidt, when Hitler left the scene, Kaufman threatened Schmidt that he will kill him if he approaches Hitler again.

Search for Erskine

"And he... he hears of me, and my work, and he finds me, and he says "You." He says "You will make us strong." Well, I am not interested. So he sends the head of HYDRA, his research division, a brilliant scientist by the name of Johann Schmidt."

When Hitler learned of Dr. Abraham Erskine's work on the Super Soldier Serum, he asked him to use the serum to turn the Germans into a race of super humans, the superior men. Erskine rejected the offer and, knowing very well what Hitler intends to do with Jews, he attempted to escape from Germany. But Hitler sent Johann Schmidt to stop him.[3] Schmidt captured Erskine on the Germany/Switzerland border, and sent his family to a concentration camp in Dachau.[4]

World War II

Hitler salutes the passing German troops.

"The Führer is not accustomed to being ignored, Herr Schmidt. He funds your research because you promised him weapons.""You serve at his pleasure. He gave you this facility as a reward for your injuries.""Reward? Call it what it is. Exile. I no longer reflect his image of Aryan perfection."

In 1939, Hitler started World War II, intending to conquer the whole Europe and create the German Empire that would last for a thousand years. When Johann Schmidt's face became disfigured after he injected himself with the unstable version of the Super Soldier Serum, Hitler gave him a military base in the Alps, and funded his research. Schmidt turned the base into the headquarters of HYDRA, where his scientists worked on developing new weapons for the Third Reich. However, Schmidt saw his new post more as an exile than the reward.

Hitler's luck on the battlefield run out when the United States of America entered World War II in 1941. By 1943, Hitler's armies were beginning to retreat on all fronts in Europe. Hitler then sent three SS officers Schneider, Hutter and Roeder to Schmidt's base to question him about HYDRA's failure to deliver promised weapons to the German Army. Schmidt showed them his Tesseract powered laser cannon, but when they discovered that Schmidt intended to attack Berlin and overthrow Hitler, Schmidt vaporized them.

The burning of Hitler's photos in Germany.

At the beginning of 1945, Hitler's Reich finally crumbled under the joint offensives of the Allied armies.[3] On April 30, 1945, in Berlin, Hitler appointed Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, the Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, as his successor. Hitler then committed suicide in order to evade capture after Nazi Germany's defeat. The Nazi propaganda attempted to present his death as a heroic fall in the struggle against Bolshevism.[6]

Legacy

"In the end, you will always kneel.""Not to men like you.""There are no men like me.""There are always men like you."

In large part because of Hitler's brutal reign in Germany, and especially his attempted genocide of the Jewish people, he ultimately went down in history as one of the worst dictators and war criminals to ever live. It also led to Germany becoming suspicious of charisma within anyone. An old man in Stuttgart, Germany, after Loki forced several Germans to kneel before him, refused to kneel before him, and indirectly alluded to Hitler and his takeover of and transformation of Germany as a National Socialist regime by claiming that there were "always men like [Loki]" when the latter tried to claim that there weren't any men like himself (in reference to his status as an Asgardian) when citing why he refuses to kneel.[7]

Personality

"Now Schmidt is a member of the inner circle and he is ambitious. He and Hitler share a passion for occult power and Teutonic myth. Hitler uses his fantasies to inspire his followers, but for Schmidt, it is not fantasy. For him, it is real."

Adolf Hitler was a megalomaniacal German politician who firmly believed in the Nazis' misinterpretation of Nietzsche's Übermensch (over-man) concept where a race of superhuman beings are destined to rule the normal ones. Believing the Germans are such race, he wanted to bring almost all European countries under German rule. Being an anti-Semite, he despised Jews and considered them inferior to the Germans.

He was also interested in Norse mythology and the occult. As stated by Schmidt, Hitler has sent several expeditions to search for the occult relics in the deserts.[3]

Trivia

In the comics, Hitler was killed in 1945 by the superhero Human Torch. His mind was transferred to a cloned body by the Nazi scientist Arnim Zola. The cloned Hitler eventually became known as the Hate-Monger.